Coronavirus News highlights: Maharashtra reports 3,018 fresh COVID-19 cases, 68 deaths

Jharkhand reported 230 new COVID-19 cases, 203 recoveries and 5 deaths today. The total number of cases now stands at 1,14,650 including 1,12,021 recoveries, 1,025 deaths and 1,604 active cases.

No Evidence That Vaccines Will Not Work Against New COVID Variant: Government

"There is no evidence that current vaccines will fail to protect against COVID-19 variants reported from UK or SA. Most vaccines do target the Spike protein, in which there are changes in the variants…

Health Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh:Anglo-Indian women belonging to Rajahmundry, who returned from UK, then escaped the isolation centre in Delhi & reached AP in a special train, turned out to be infected with new UK strain virus. There's no spread of UK strain in AP from her.

Ireland began its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Tuesday by giving a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to a 79-year-old woman at a hospital in Dublin, the health service said, as coronavirus cases surge in the country.

Annie Lynch was the first person in the country to receive the vaccine at Dublin's St James's Hospital, it said. Health staff and patients at four hospitals were also vaccinated.

"Today is a new day. It marks a new chapter in our fight," Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told RTE Radio.

Donnelly said Ireland expected to vaccinate all 75,000 people who live or work in nursing homes and tens of thousands of other health workers by the end of February.

All schools in Mumbai, Maharashtra, will remain shut till January 15, 2021, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on December 29. The Mumbaicivic body announcement comes as a precautionary measure to control the spread of COVID-19.

BMC had said in November that all schools in Mumbai will remain closed till December 31 even though the Maharashtra government had allowed schools to reopen for Classes IX to XII from November 23.

Delhi reports 703 new COVID-19 cases, 850 recoveries and 28 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Delhi Health Department. Total cases now stand at 6,24,118 anddeath toll at 10,502.

Mumbai reports 537 new COVID-19cases, 486 recoveries/discharges and 6 deaths today. Total cases rise to 2,92,008 including 2,71,870 recoveries/discharges and 11,094 deaths. Active cases stand at 8,186.

Explained: What are VLP-based Covid-19 vaccines, and why is the platform attracting vaccine cos?

Serum Institute of India (SII) has announced it has partnered with UK biotech company, Spybiotech, a spin-off of the University of Oxford, to develop a COVID-19 virus-like-particle (VLP)-based vaccine.

The vaccine has entered a Phase 1/2 trial in Australia. In October, another Indian drug maker,Aurobindo Pharma,said it entered into collaboration with Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) lab, to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine based on VLP.

It isn't SII and Aurobindo Pharma alone, there more than a dozen COVID-19 vaccine candidates currently under development that are based on VLP.

Read more here.

Andhra Pradesh reports 326 new COVID-19cases, 364 recoveries and2 deaths, taking the total number of cases to 8,81,599, as per State Health Department. Recovered Cases: 8,71,116; Active Cases: 3,383; Total Deaths: 7,100.

5,887 new COVID-19cases, 5,029 recoveries and24 deaths reported in Keralatoday. The total number of active cases in the state is 64,861. The total recovered cases are 6,81,397.

COVID-19 Vaccine Dry Run Concludes Successfully In Four States, Says Health Ministry

The vaccine dry run was conducted to test the laid out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination in the states and provide insights into any gaps.

Maharashtra reports 3,018 new COVID-19cases, 5,572 discharges, and 68 deaths today, as per State Health Department. Total cases: 19,25,066; Total recoveries: 18,20,021; Total active cases: 54,537; Total Deaths: 49,373; Recovery rate in the state is 94.54 percent.